“Dylan’s childhood sweetheart, Dakota Rowe. If you ask me, that boy is far too good for her. Easy on the eyes, too. Don’t know what he ever saw in my granddaughter. She looksjust like her momma, with that fiery-red hair. She probably put some sort of spell on him, just like her momma did to my boy.”
Dakota Rowe? Dylan had a childhood sweetheart she hadn’t told me about? Since when? Switching my focus from finding the missing jewelry to pumping the nasty old bat for Dylan information, I said, “Tell me about this Dakota fella.”
“Oh, he’s a lovely boy. His daddy isbest friends with my boy, so they raised those kids together since birth. I think I have a photo around here of them in the bathtub when they was five.” She reached over to her cabinet.
As much as I was dying to see a picture of five-year-old Dylan in the bathtub with a boy, I worried she’d come back before I got the full scoop, so I leaned forward to conspire. “That’s okay, Mrs. James, I’m surewe can find it another day. What does Dakota do for a living?”
“Oh, he takes care of the shitters.”
“I’m sorry?”
“He owns Howdy Doodies. Took it over from his dad.”
“I’m not following.”
“Listen, girl, it’s not that hard,” she snapped. “The shitters you see on the side of the road...toilets.”
“Oh, Porta-Pottys,” I provided.
“Right. Portable shitters. He runs the company his daddy, Howard,started. Him and his brother.”
Okay, this was going down a weird path. “So, he deals in excrement.”
“Makes a lotta money dealin’ in shit, missy, so don’t you go raisin’ your rich nose in the air like your shit don’t stink.”
I didn’t point out that I probably wasn’t the only one raising their noses when they had to deal with a Porta-Potty. I shuddered. Gross.
“I would never,” I said, makingsure to keep my nose lowered. “So he’s gainfully employed. I wonder what Dylan doesn’t see in him.”
“Well I thought it was on account of you two doin’—”
“I can assure you, ma’am, Dylan and I are as straight as they come.”
“Well then, why did she turn Dakota down?”
“I have no idea. I’m sure whatever reason she had, though, it was a good one.” And I had a pretty good idea it had something todo with the way she looked at my brother.
“Then you don’t know my granddaughter.”
I bristled under her patronizing stare. “I know Dylan better than anyone, and I can tell you one thing, she’s the most honest person I know, and she’s one heck of a friend, so regardless of whether or not you agree with her decision or why she made it, if she made it, it was for a good reason.” I shifted in myseat and picked up my pad and pen again. “Now, let’s get back to the missing jewelry.”
“I don’t know why you outta-towners have your noses in our business. Ain’t no cause for it, since everyone knows who took it anyway.”
“Oh? Enlighten me.”
“Wyatt Adams,” she spat.
“Who’s Wyatt Adams?”
“The heater guy.”
“Right, Mrs. Rogers told us about him. Blond, nice butt, wears cowboy boots, right?”
“I tried to tell Yvonne that boy would lead her straight to hell, but she insists on ogling him.”
“Yvonne?”
Ms. James sighed. “Mrs. Rogers.”
